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Description

The Synthusiasts and The Faculty of Sciencepresents:

Synthetic Biology Solutions Challenge

An interdisciplinary case competition where teams will design a product that utilizes synthetic biology to solve real problems and compete to win cash prizes! Beginners are welcome and open to all Business and STEM students!

Are you excited about synthetic biology or biotechnology? Do you want to learn more about research and development? Ever thought about what goes into bringing a product to market? Want to practice your problem solving and presentation skills to solve a real problem that has a global impact?

Synthusiasts, a synthetic biology student group at the University of Alberta, is excited to announce the inaugural Synthetic Biology Solutions Challenge! This competition was designed by students who are interested in synthetic biology and biotechnology and are excited about how these fields are transforming the marketplace. From finding ways to make prescription drugs more affordable to keeping our foods fresher, synthetic biology has many potential applications. Solid science is needed for a product to succeed, but so are solid business practices! This challenge is highly interdisciplinary and brings together students in science interested in a marketing perspective, and business students interested in the research and development process.

What is the challenge?

On Saturday, March 16th, you will have the opportunity to design a marketable solution using synthetic biology! The theme of this year’s problem will be one that has a significant impact on the food industry, and we want to reach out to you to think of the best marketable solution. STEM or Business students of any year are encouraged to sign up with a partner. If you are a student with a business background, find a friend with a business background to register with! If you are a student with a STEM-related background, register with a friend who is also of a science background! Each science pair will then be matched up with a business pair for the competition. Through this, each team of four will have the necessary skill set needed to succeed in this highly interdisciplinary competition! Cost of registration is $20 for the pair of students and includes a catered lunch and two coffee breaks with snacks.

Once teams are given the challenge, they will be given time to brainstorm and develop a product idea that incorporates synthetic biology in the design. Teams must then create a 3-4 minute presentation and pitch to wow the judges, who will have relevant experience in the field. The top two teams will go head to head and have the chance of taking home a prize!

Over $1000 in Cash Prizes to be won!

1st Place: TBA

2nd Place: TBA

3rd Place: TBA

Invited Speakers/Partners and Judges

David Janzen - Industry Navigator, TEC Edmonton

David Janzen has twelve years’ of management experience working in innovation projects and scale-ups in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Kenya, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Uganda, and elsewhere. He specializes in assisting organizations as they embrace “the future of work” where scalable technology platforms are married to scalable teams of knowledge workers. This can mean helping a new venture outcompete the established incumbents or helping incumbents as they seek to work more nimbly and integrate acquired startups into their organization.

David specializes in the Health and Finance/Insurance sectors having worked with firms such as the University of Calgary Department of Medicine, EMIS Health, Kenya Ministry of Health, Zurich Insurance, Profuturo, Argo Group, Farmer’s Insurance, Empire Insurance, and hedge/venture capital funds. He has also worked with organizations working in fashion, professional services, nutrition, education, and others.

Dr. Monica Varga is a results focused, innovation agent and strategic catalyst with over 30 years ofdiverse experience in scientific research, technology innovation and commercialization, businessdevelopment, regulatory and policy development, and strategic leadership. She is currently the AssociateDirector, Technology Management, Natural Sciences and Engineering, for TEC Edmonton. She hasworked in academia, government, not for profit, and industry covering various sectors such asenergy, environment, clean tech, biotech, life/health sciences, nanotechnology, and otheremerging areas. Monica was recipient of the PTAC Commercializing Technology Award (2012) forher strong leadership with innovative companies while being an Industrial Technology Advisor withNRC-IRAP. She is an advocate for helping others achieve success, and through the years she has, andcontinues to volunteer her time with various organizations.

David Lloyd - CEO and Co-Founder, FREDsense Technologies

David is an entrepreneur and synthetic biologist who focuses on using the power of biology to disrupt global markets. He is the co-founder and CEO of FREDsense Technologies, one of the first biology powered start-ups developing water instrumentation for industry and municipalities to understand exactly what is in their water. FREDsense has been recognized globally with numerous awards including PwC's Vision 2 Reality Award, Winner of over 8 North American business plan competitions, and the Singularity University Global Grand Challenge in Water. David is also a consultant working in the not-for-profit and education industry, leading complex biotech-related projects such as the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge, building high school curriculum, and empowering high school students to develop their own biotechnology projects. He sits as a judge and committee member for the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition formerly based out of MIT in Boston and is on the board of the Alberta Women's Science Network and Ars Biotechnica, a high school biotechnology-based peer-review publication.

Ryan Mercer, Ph.D. - Research Program Manager, Genome Alberta

Ryan is the Research Program Manager for Genome Alberta, a not-for-profit government funding organization supporting applied genomics research and technology development. Alongside this, he is a sessional instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, teaching Introduction to Microbiology and Techniques in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics. His research background spans from molecular biology and microbiology to genomics and food safety. He has MBA course work in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was the Former Assistant Supervisor for the University of Alberta's iGEM team.

Noreen Hoskins - Executive Director, NABI

Noreen Hoskins has twenty-plus years of experience in small business in the following sectors: Technology, construction, professional services, value-added food manufacturing, international education, economic development, fitness and the financial sector. Noreen has helped a variety of SMEs: She’s helped seed-stage teams, mature businesses and everything in between.

Noreen owned and operated a boutique-marketing firm for six years in Victoria, BC and consulted for and invested in a number of small businesses in Western Canada. During her time as a university instructor and facilitator she has leveraged her experience in academic settings.

Noreen has twelve-plus year’s direct experience in entrepreneurial training and development. She served as an associate faculty member at Royal Roads University for the BCom program, Manager, Entrepreneur Development at TEC Edmonton and served as Director of eHUB, for three and a half years. Currently Noreen is the Executive Director of NABI (Northern Alberta Business Incubator Society).

Lisa completed her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon and was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology and Center for Life Detection. A professor in the Department of Biology, Lisa Stein's research interests are physiology, genomics, and ecology of nitrification, denitrification, and single carbon metabolism. She is also interested in the influence of microbial metabolism on greenhouse gas production and the industrialization of microorganisms using single-carbon feedstocks.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1983 for research focused on chromosome structure. He spent the next six years at MIT developing accurate computational approaches for predicting the physical behaviour of bio-macromolecules where his interests shifted toward understanding the ubiquitin system. His current focus is on Synthetic Biology, an emerging discipline that sits at the interface between biology and engineering. The goal of this new field is to produce modular biological circuits of increasing sophistication using well-understood molecular components that can be reliably assembled into novel and useful forms of artificial life. As Synthetic Biology theme leader of the Bioconversions network, his current efforts are directed toward the creation of microbial systems with the capacity to produce high value chemical feed stocks from provincially available sources of biomass.

He continues to be a strong advocate for innovative science. He has served on the boards of Genome Prairie, the Alberta Network for Proteomic Innovation and has played a major role in bringing new technologies to the university through two multi-million dollar investments from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. He is actively engaged in the dissemination of synthetic biology to undergraduates with his involvement in iGEM, a student research competition held annually at MIT.

CraigMilne, PhD, MBACraig is a serial entrepreneur, mentor and active angel investor in Edmonton with thirteen years of experience in strategy development, operations management, and business development. Craig was co-Founder and President of Stream Technologies Inc. and developed a product for agricultural imaging. Craig has proven adaptability, working with companies across a number of industry verticals. As a former Executive-in-Residence at TEC Edmonton, Craig established an accelerator program for medical diagnostics companies with a major industry partner. Craig is a member of Valhalla Angels, the University of Alberta Venture Mentoring Service, SPIE (photonics industry organization) and the co-founder of Prairie Noodle Shop, an award-winning Edmonton restaurant. Craig has a PhD in stem cell biology from the University of Toronto and an MBA in Finance from the University of Alberta.

FAQs

I'm really interested, but I don't know of anyone in my discipline to sign up with.

At this time, we can only offer registration for pairs of students in science or business. However, feel free to send us an email at synbio@ualberta.ca and we will try and facilitate contact with other interested students without a partner!

I don't quite understand how the teams are set up...

Each team will be made up of (2) science students and (2) business students for a team of 4.Registration is for you and a partner of the same discipline. Since you will be registering with a partner of the same discipline as you, we will be creating the groups so that each team is even in science/business students! This way, you can meet students from other faculties and bring together knowledge from different areas to be successful in this competition.

Are there ID or minimum age requirements to enter the event?

No, all undergraduate students are able to participate.

What should I bring to the event?

Please bring a laptop/tablet to carry out research on. Lunch and coffee/snacks will be provided.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Feel free to email us with any additional questions at synbio@ualberta.ca